LEM HARRIS

Coalition Challenges Bush Trade Demand

On May 10 President Bush sent a message to Congress demanding
"fast track" action on a pending free trade agreement,
notwithstanding the present NAFTA deal covering Canada, USA and
Mexico to the entire Western Hemisphere. But that is only the
starter. He also demands "fast track" treatment for the World Trade
Agreement to be negotiated next July.

Reuters, the European press agency, quotes Bush: "We have no time
to waste in reasserting America's leadership in trade. We can no
longer afford to sit still while our trade partners [read
"competitors"] move ahead without us." Here we have the arrogant
voice of transnational capital.

On May 12, the voice of the American people responded. The newly
formed people's coalition, the Citizen's Trade Campaign (CTC), an
outgrowth of the successful popular protest against the WTO free
trade proposal in Seattle last year, announced its opposition to
Bush's demands. CTC is described by Reuters as the "broad-based
coalition of environmental, labor, family farm, consumer and
religious organizations."

The CTC statement enlarges on the theme that the World Trade
Organization (WTO) in its concern for the transnational corporate
bottom lines is ignoring people's concerns:

"The real issue in the debate over US trade policy is what rules
should govern the world economy, and whose interests should they
serve. We propose the development of rules that benefit the many and
not the few."

CTC then outlined the principles any world trade agreement must
follow:

* Environmental, labor, health and other public interest standards
must not be undermined.

* Countries must be allowed to give priority to sustaining family
farms and achieving global food security.

* New rules (by the WTO) requires more democracy ... and Fast
Track under any name is therefore unacceptable.

* WTO agreements must prohibit countries from weakening,
eliminating or failing to enforce domestic labor , environmental or
other public interest standards to attract investment.

* WTO trade agreements must not directly encourage trade that
damages the environment or leads to the sustainable depletion of
resources.

Members of the CTC include the United Steel Workers of America,
Friends of the Earth, the National Farm Family Coalition, the United
Methodist Board of Church and Society, Public Citizen, the
international Brotherhood of Teamsters, UNITE, and the United Auto
Workers, among others.